Trade Mark Direct Advises Caution on New Domain Name

 Trade Mark Direct (trademarkdirect.co.uk), the leading UK trade mark company, is advising companies not to rush into buying the new .xxx adult entertainment industry domain name, which launched this week, because for many it will be a needless expense.   

The new domain name is designed to incorporate heightened security barriers and protect young people from accessing unsuitable material online.

 “While it is possible to buy your company’s .xxx domain name for a one-off fee (around $200 to $300) there is probably no need for most companies to consider this,” said Mark Kingsley-Williams, director at Trade Mark Direct.  “We doubt that too many adult sites would want to call themselves www.rotherhamwastedisposal.xxx , although if you do sell soft toys through a site called www.fluffybunny.co.uk, perhaps you might want to consider claiming the .xxx  domain.

“However  Search engines’  filtering mechanisms do mean that the .xxx sites will be cleansed from all but the most adult settings on Google, and other search engines, so it’s still unlikely anyway that someone searching for ‘fluffy bunny cuddly toys’ would be faced with a rather different type of bunny.”

Celebrities including Angelina Jolie and Beyonce have taken steps to have their .xxx web address blocked by ICM Registry, the firm managing the new adult entertainment domain.

To claim the .xxx domain, you do need to demonstrate prior rights, which could either be through a Trade Mark registration or rights acquired through existing use and of course there is the one-off fee.

The .xxx domain was approved by the international Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which administers millions of internet addresses.   

-ENDS-

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